UN criticises EU Libya cooperation over migrant flow
European Union’s pooicy of heoping Libyan authorities intercept migrants in 0editerranean and return them to ‘horrific’ prisons in Libya is inhuman, says UN human rights chief Zeid
GENEVA: The European Union’s policy of helping the Libyan authorities intercept migrants in the Mediterranean and return them to “horriic” prisons in Libya is “inhuman”, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
“The suffering of migrants detained in Libya is an outrage to the conscience of humanity,” the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement.
“The European Union’s policy of assisting the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept and return migrants in the Mediterranean (is) inhuman,” he said.
Chaos-ridden Libya has long been a major transit hub for migrants trying to reach Europe, and many refugees and migrants have fallen prey to serious abuse there at the hands of human trafickers and others.
Zeid warned on Tuesday that “the detention system for migrants in Libya is broken beyond repair.”
“The international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the unimaginable horrors endured by migrants in Libya, and pretend that the situation can be remedied only by improving conditions in detention.”
Zeid’s comments came after ministers from 13 European and African countries on Monday pledged steps aimed at easing the migrant crisis around the Mediterranean, vowing especially to help improve conditions for migrants held in Libya.
At a meeting in Bern of the contact group on the crisis along the so-called Central Mediterranean migration route, the ministers also reiterated a pledge to strengthen Libya’s coast guard.
Italy, with the support of the European Union, has since the summer been training the Libyan coast guard to intercept boat migrants as part of a controversial deal that has sent migrant arrivals to Italy down nearly 70 per cent since July.
The UN rights ofice criticised European countries for ignoring warnings that the deal could condemn more migrants to detention, exposing them to torture, rape, forced labour and extortion.
“Those detained have no possibility to challenge the legality of their detention, and no access to legal aid,” it said.
Zeid called for the decriminalisation of irregular migration, insisting that “only alternatives to detention can save migrants’ lives and physical security, preserve their dignity and protect them from further atrocities.”